Offline APP
Offline APP
Usage Scenarios of Offline Application
In certain scenarios, we would prefer that surveyors can independently collect questionnaire data using offline apps. For instance: at large-scale events such as exhibitions, concerts, or sports competitions, where crowds are dense and network signals are prone to congestion, making it difficult to use online questionnaires stably; when conducting market research in areas with poor network coverage, like parking lots or remote regions; during confidential product testing phases before a new product launch, where respondents need to be completely isolated from external networks to protect trade secrets, and so on. In these cases, we must utilize offline apps to collect questionnaire data to ensure the smooth execution of market research activities.
Choiceform offline app is capable of running survey projects without an internet connection, collecting data and storing it on the local device.Users can then synchronize the data to the server at an appropriate time, ensuring data integrity and consistency. All questionnaires created on the Choiceform system platform can be loaded onto the offline app for data collection. Choiceform's offline app supports photo-taking and audio recording functions. At the start of a questionnaire, users can take and upload photos of the respondent's environment. During the questionnaire response process, sounds from the respondent's surroundings can be recorded simultaneously. These features help verify the respondent's environment and serve as reference conditions for data quality checks.
Use Offline Application
Preliminary Preparations
- Download the offline app: For iOS devices, you can search for "Choiceform" in the App Store to download it. For Android devices, you can download it from the official Choiceform website.
- Bind an offline device: After logging into the offline app, select your team, and click "Bind" on the page.
The current device ID will be prompted on the page. Click "Confirm" to successfully bind this account to the offline device. The device ID can be found under "Device ID" in the "Setting" section. If you are unable to bind the offline device, please check on the team management page whether there are any extra offline device authorization licenses available.
If there is no extra offline device authorization license.You will need to purchase the required license in the billing before attempting to bind the offline device again.
- Unbinding: If you wish to unbind a specified device, you need to select "Billing" in the team management section on the Choiceform platform. In the offline device authorization section, you can view the number of authorization licenses currently in use as well as the specific device IDs that have been bound. Simply select "Unbind" to remove the authorization binding for the specified device.
Publish Offline Questionnaires
Before collecting questionnaire responses on the offline app, you first need to publish an offline collector for that questionnaire on the system platform. The specific steps are as follows:
- Publishing an Offline Collector: On the collector page of the questionnaire, click on "Add Collector“.
- Select "Offline." This will create an offline collector.
- Refresh the offline app, and you will be able to see the published offline questionnaire. If the offline collector is in a published state, the questionnaire status on the offline app will be "Online." If the offline collector is not published, the questionnaire status on the offline app will be "Offline."Please note that you need to click "Publish the current collector" to release the questionnaire.
Download Offline Questionnaire
After publishing the offline collector, we need to complete the download of the questionnaire on the offline app before proceeding to the next step.
- Download Process: Simply click on the download button at the right end of the questionnaire card on the offline app to download the questionnaire.
- Update Offline Questionnaire: If we make modifications to the questionnaire, the download button at the right end of the questionnaire card will turn into a yellow update button. Click on it to complete the questionnaire update
Collect Questionnaire Data
After downloading the offline questionnaire on the offline app, we can collect survey answers.
- Enter the respondent's name: Before starting the questionnaire collection each time, input a name for the data collection session to facilitate users in distinguishing the data.
- Take photo: You can capture the surrounding scene during the survey.
- Enable recording: By default, recording is turned off. Once enabled, it can record the ambient sounds during the respondent's answers to the questionnaire.
- Get responses: Open the questionnaire, and the respondent can begin filling it out.
View Responses and Upload Data
During the data collection process for offline questionnaires, we can view the questionnaire's collection status and collected data at any time.
- Response collected: Click the button above "Collected" to enter the data storage page. The offline app automatically records data such as "Server statistics" (the ratio of uploaded response data to the total set limit for responses), "Total responses" (the total response limit set in the collector), "Already uploaded" (the sum of response data that has been uploaded for this questionnaire), and "Local Storage" (the sum of all response data collected on this device for this questionnaire, including unuploaded data).
- Upload: You can upload all unuploaded response data to the user's cloud storage on the Choiceform platform in one go. Users can then view the uploaded offline questionnaire collection data on the corresponding questionnaire data statistical analysis page on the Choiceform platform. Below "Response collected" are all the response data entries. Click on "Detail" to enter the "Individual responses" page, where you can view the detailed information of a specific response data entry.
- Name: The name of the current response data entry.
- Started: The start time of data collection.
- Last Modified: The last time the data was modified.
- Time: The total time taken for data collection.
- IP Address: The IP address at the time of data collection.
- Has Been Uploaded to the Server: Indicates whether this response data has been uploaded to the cloud storage.
If recording was enabled when collecting this response data, then information about the recording file will be displayed below. You can click the play button on the right to play the recording. Additionally, you can share the recording in MP4 format to other apps or export it to a local file.
In addition to recordings, we can also share or export the questionnaire Answers in JSON format. This file is typically useful when encountering technical issues, as it can be provided to technical support personnel to assist in problem analysis.
Clicking the trash can button below "Individual responses" allows you to delete this specific response data entry individually. Clicking the left or right arrow buttons on the right enables quick navigation to other response data entries.
- Other operations
- Export records into the local folder: we can export all records to a local folder at once.The response records will be in JSON format.
- Share records:Also, we can share all records to other app at once.
- Export recording files: We can export all recording files to a local folder at once.The recording files will be sent as compressed ZIP files.
- Recordings Management: By clicking "Check out",you can see all the recordings for this questionnaire on this device.
You can play the recordings here, and also select individual recordings to delete or export.
- Clear all answer records: By clicking "Clear" ,you can delete all data with one click. It's important to note that once the data on the offline app is cleared, it cannot be recovered. However, the data that has already been uploaded to cloud storage will not be affected.
Setting
- Data Deletion Warning: Once you click "Confirm", all response data will be deleted. Any data that has not yet been uploaded cannot be retrieved once deleted.
- Language: Set the interface display language for the offline app.
- Version: Displays the current version number of the offline app. If there's an update available, a small window will pop up to prompt for the update when you open the app.
- Device ID: This is the ID number of the current device.
- Logout: Allows you to switch accounts.